Principal Investigator: Teresa Ferrer Valls. Chair Professor of Spanish Literature.

The city of Valencia was one of the theatrical hubs of the Golden Age, thanks to its intense and constant dramatic activity, both in terms of the playwrights who wrote for palatial stages and halls, and the professional companies that travelled from various parts of Spain to perform. The TECLAVAL  project centres on a fresh investigation into the emergence, in late 16th-century Valencia, of a professional and commercial theatrical practice—one of the earliest manifestations of a nascent modern culture—and its development through to the end of the 17th century. This is regarded as part of the city’s cultural heritage, which has, over time, become a classic and calls for its updating for a wider audience.

The project adopts an interdisciplinary approach, combining traditional methods from philology and the humanities with modern technological tools. In our study of Valencian theatre, we take into account various lines of research, ranging from philological work on the texts, their translation into various languages and the recovery of their musical scores, to the virtual reconstruction of theatrical spaces, research into the activities of acting companies, their organisation and repertoires, and the role of the Valencian printing press in transforming public stage performances into a cultural product suitable for private consumption, thereby promoting the synthesis of two pioneering processes in the nascent cultural modernisation: commercial theatre and the printing press, professional performance and private reading.

To this end, a group of specialists from various fields has been assembled, all with a proven track record in research. The core of this group is based in the Department of Spanish Philology, which has a history of close collaboration on previous projects that have led to the creation of research tools for classical Spanish theatre, such as the DICAT, CATCOM, ARTELOPE, EMOTHE y ASODAT, or the virtual reconstruction of the former Casa de Comedias de L’Olivera. To tackle the challenges of this new project, the team has expanded its base by incorporating researchers from the Departments of English and German Philology, French and Italian Philology, and Computer Science at the University of Valencia, as well as researchers from other Spanish universities (Madrid, Salamanca, Barcelona, Seville, La Rioja, Santiago de Compostela…) and external collaborators from universities in Italy, France, Argentina, and the USA.

Project reference: CIPROM/2024/82. Programme for Research Groups of Excellence. Regional Ministry of Education, Culture and Universities. Government of the Valencian Community.